Battleground state Georgia sees record turnout - more than double the 2020 count - as early voting begins
Voters in battleground state Georgia have turned out to cast their ballots in record numbers as early voting begins.
Voters in battleground state Georgia have turned out to cast their ballots in record numbers as early voting begins.
328,000 Georgians cast early in-person or mail votes, more than double the previous record of 136,000 in 2020, the year that Joe Biden scraped through with less than 12,000 votes.
Winning the states 16 electoral college votes would give either Trump or Harris a high chance of winning the overall election.
Since September 9, Trump has been marginally leading in Georgia, according to polling data aggregated by FiveThirtyEight.
As of yesterday, Trump is just ahead by just 1.1%.
Trump, at a campaign event in Atlanta, expressed enthusiasm for the early vote in Georgia.
The votes are coming in, and theyre coming in at a nice level for us, he said.
Donald Trump (pictured) expressed enthusiasm for the early vote in Georgia
US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks at Cred Cafe during a campaign event in Detroit, Michigan, October 15, 202
People line up to vote in the Atlanta suburb of Tucker, Ga., on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024
The mass early voter turnout came as a Georgia judge on Tuesday temporarily halted a rule requiring clerks to verify vote totals by hand counting ballots in the 2024 election.
Judge Robert McBurney said in his Tuesday ruling that it was appropriate to pause the change because it introduced fresh uncertainty into the process just weeks before Election Day.
The move was a defeat for Trump, whose Republican allies pushed the change after he lost the battleground state in 2020.
The hand-count rule was passed on Sept. 20 by a pro-Trump conservative majority of Georgias election board, who said they were attempting to make the election more secure and transparent.
McBurney said in his decision on Tuesday that it was appropriate to pause the vote counting rule because it introduced fresh uncertainty into the process just weeks before Election Day.
A billboard encourages people to vote at Atlanta Metropolitan State College on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia
Voters take part in early election voting at a polling station in Marietta, Georgia, U.S. October 15, 2024
A billboard tells people the dates they are able to vote at Atlanta Metropolitan State College on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia
A poll worker hands a voter the green card used to identify the voter when using the machine to go to cast their vote on the first day of early voting at Metropolitan library on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia
Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public, according to a copy of the decision posted by Democracy Docket, a website founded by Democratic lawyer Marc Elias that tracks election cases.
The administrative chaos that will - not may - ensue is entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the State Election Board) to ensure that our elections are fair, legal, and orderly, the judge wrote.
Early voting, either in person or by mail, has become increasingly popular with voters. Nearly 1 in 7 voters cast their ballots ahead of Election Day in 2020, according to the University of Floridas Election Lab.
However, many Republicans opposed the dramatic expansion of mail voting that year, saying it was less secure than in-person voting, and Trump cited false claims of mail ballot fraud as he sought unsuccessfully to overturn his defeat by Democrat Joe Biden.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a campaign rally at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on October 15, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia
Kamala Harris speaks at a watch party of her iHeart radio conversation at Cred Cafe in Detroit, Michigan
Trump speaks during an interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago, in Chicago, Illinois, on October 15, 2024
Some Republicans continue to insist that voters should be able to cast their ballots only in person on Election Day, though party officials are encouraging supporters to vote ahead of time.
Nationwide, 5.5 million Americans have already voted this year, according to Election Lab. By contrast, 27 million people had cast their ballots at this point in the 2020 election as voters sought to avoid crowded polling places during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like some other states, Georgia has tightened its mail-voting laws since then, requiring voters who want to cast an absentee ballot to provide proof of identity and limiting the number of places they can deposit their ballots.
Georgia is one of the seven competitive battleground states expected to play a decisive role in deciding the election.
The other six states, which in 2020 were won by less than three points, were Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin North Carolina and Nevada.
